Wow, I am back! Phew...it has been quite a ride, let me tell you. (Looks at calendar) Yup, sorry for having taken so long to update, but let me tell you, I have been a very busy girl for the past 3 weeks! Let´s just say that today is finally Saturday again and it´s laundry day (yup, I have 4 loads to do, and with the slow european washing machines it can take up to almost an entire day, lol)
Where to begin? Well, on October 12th, which was a National Holiday, I took the early 6:30 a.m. bus out of Logroño and drove to Madrid to pick up Shane...hehehe he didn´t know about it, it was a surprise! He thought that I was going to pick him up only at the bus station later that evening, but no, this girl is full of surprises, hehe! He was quite happy to see me at the airport, as was I, of course. I really missed him, we had talked a lot on msn for the past couple of months, and had emailed each other a lot, so it was nice to finally see him face to face again. It felt a little surreal, and we still couldn´t believe that we were both in Spain together.
At first I was afraid that I would barely have enough time to see him, since I would be working so much with the intensive courses and everything, but it actually worked out pretty well. We would meet up for coffee during my breaks or have a quick lunch together, or quick breakfast etc, so in the end it was all good.
Our first weekend trip was to San Sebastian (you know, one of the places where U2 performed this past year, hehehe). It was soooo beautiful. Sam Sebastian is located on the North coast of Spain, a little North-East actually. We had awesome weather, and spent a nice relaxing weekend together there. I have a nice seashell as a souvenir, from when we were walking barefoot along the beach together. I just felt so alive that weekend, the beach was beautiful and there were some castle ruins on the east part of the city. The castle ruins were located on a hill, and Shane and I went hiking there a bit and were amazed at the beautiful scenery.
Our hostal in San Sebastian, because we hadn´t booked anything, was very last minute and so-so. It was called Pension Aussie (because an Australian owned it) and it was alright in terms of providing us with a decent place to sleep and put away our stuff, but it was kinda shitty looking, lol. Let´s just say that we were happy to have found a place really quick and didn´t care about luxury at that point. After all, we came to see the city, not to have a 5 star hotel :P The room was ok, in fairness, but very old and needed a wallpaper job, lol. I think that the wallpaper was from 1960, lol.
But, man oh man, San Sebastian was really beautiful and I would recommend going to see it. The little streets with all the bars remind me a little of Logroño, it was really cool walking through the streets at night and just seeing the packed bars full of people enjoying their beers and Pintxos. Yes, I said Pintxos and not Tapas. San Sebastian is located in the Basque country, and the language spoken there (although castellano is heavily used there too) is incomprehensible to a normal Spaniard. It´s an entirely different language, it´s not even a dialect. Thank God the people speak castellano there as well, so I was able to speak with the waiters, pension owner, etc.
The second weekend, for my birthday, we went to Barcelona! I was so excited for that trip, even though we had to leave at midnight on a friday night to spend as much time as possible in the city. Again, we had amazing weather. When we got there, the sun was shining and the birds were singing. It was so beautiful, I prefered it to Madrid by a tenfold. We visited this beautiful GORGEOUS old cathedral where there were white geese (!) in this little plaza that was located right before you entered the church. In the square surrounding the geese, there were little shrines devoted to different saints, and it was interesting walking around and trying to guess what these saints symbolised. Also, there were palm trees right behind the geese! Yeah, doesn´t sound like an ordinary church, does it? Well, it sure wasn´t! When we finally entered the cathedral, my jaw dropped. It was the most beautiful church I had EVER seen. Ever little detail was etched into wood or ceramic with the most minute details, and everything screamed of antiquity and real, pure, "holiness". Shane and I both agreed that it made us want to attend mass that Sunday. I am not kidding you, this was A CHURCH. I could have honestly seen myself go to mass every Sunday, and I am not a very religious person..hehehe Dad, you would have LOVED this cathedral, you who loves old churches! It was enormous and oh so so beautiful. One of the highlights of Barcelona, definitely.
The port was also really lovely. We walked alongside it, and took a bunch of pictures. It was really awesome. Later, we went to our Hostal, (yes, this time we had booked a room) to put our stuff away and to take a little nap since we hadn´t slept well on the bus. The hostal was very nice, very cute and comfy, and the showers were awesome! Great water pressure...(sadly, I don´t have great water pressure here in Logroño...something that I miss from Ottawa). This hostal was called Hostal Grau and it was very close to downtown. I recommend it. Friendly staff, too :)
The most famous street of Barcelona, which was super super close to our hostal, is called Las Ramblas. It´s so much fun walking down that street! There are little flower stands, animal stands, and magazine stands everywhere! Also, on weekends, some people dress themselves up as various characters and "mime" their way to money from the public. You know what I mean, those people who stand really really still and only move once you throw a coin in their hat or whatnot? I loved seeing the various get-ups. There was one guy dressed up as Humphrey Bogart, and he was just standing there, all still. I got super curious and threw a coin in his little receptacle thingy. The guy really looked the part. When he heard the clanking of the coin, he turned to me and said "Hey, baby" and then swiveled around and pulled a fake gun out, and Shane took an awesome picture of that.
Also, right off from Las Ramblas was an AMAZING food market. It had everything and was so huge. We had fun just walking through the maze of people and stands, easting fresh fruits and this REALLY good organic salad thingy. I saw so many different kinds of fish I had never seen before. Oh, and newsflash: I now LOVE calamare! It´s so good here in Spain, I really recommend the fish here.
At night, we just walked around town to see the people and everything. Barcelona was really nice..and for my birthday we had nice dinner together and all of my coworkers sent me sms messages on my cell phone :) It was nice, I hadn´t expected all of them to do that for me. Shane also gave me nice presents for my birthday, beautiful earrings, a U2 t-shirt and some cd´s. He also wrote me some nice things. Thank you so much Shane! xoxo
For our 3rd weekend trip, we went to Santander. This trip was good in the way that it was very relaxing, it is a smaller city and there isn´t too too much to do when you compare it to a big city like Barcelona. Again, we walked along the beach and took nice pictures. It was very windy that Saturday, but it was alright. Our hostal was simply called Hostal Madrid because it was located on a street called Madrid. That hostal was made out of a private home, hahahha the owners were really nice but at first it felt like we were intruding their home or something...hehe! We had a nice big room though, and it wasn´t overly expensive.
We mostly walked all around the little city and visited an outdoor zoo where seals and penguins were. I imagine that in the summertime there are other animals as well, but since it was a bit cooler, those were the only animals that were able to survive in those temperatures. So, all in all, Santander was a nice relaxing trip, and Shane and I really took our time and didn´t rush ourselves for anything.
It was very hard seeing him go last Wednesday, just because I was so used to seeing him everyday for 3 weeks. But, I am better now. I have a lot of good friends here and I have my big Lucy Poo as company...hahaha we still cuddle together at night, she keeps me warm :P
Now, moving on to my classes for the month of October. Well, I have finally gotten used to my routine now, and it´s a lot of work. But, I am enjoying it...some days are of course better than others, and that is with any kind of job. I am still very grateful that I got a full-time job so fast. Yesterday was pay day, hooooray! Wow. I feel very accomplished. At 23, I can already live totally independent here on the salary that I am making. Logroño is really not an expensive city and I could seriously live off my monthly salary here in comfort. It´s insane to think that I have already come so far so quickly. I feel so much older mentally and spiritually. I don´t know, in a way I am still the same kid I once used to be, but these experiences here will change my life forever.
I have good classes on the whole, interesting and nice students. I have gotten used to the personalities of my students already, and am also more comfortable now with my children´s classes. Some of my kids classes are a real joy to teach, there is only one kids class that really demands a lot of energy and discipline (and that is a class that has a really bad history, lots of teachers quit that class before). I have developed a system now with the children when they are being too disruptive. I remain optimistic with that class, since I do really like some of the children. Things have gotten better on the whole with that class, so that´s good.
With my adult and teenage classes, I have no problems and I have great fun teaching them as well. Oh, and before I forget, I had some intensive classes with military men for 2 weeks, and that was actually a lot of fun too. Those guys were hilarious and so much fun. We all went out for dinner at the end of their course and then went dancing together (!). Hahaha, certainly not the type of military men I was expecting at first. The dinner was amazing in itself, I ate the best steak ever! It was so good. We also had a lot of great tapas beforehand..mmmmmm. Oh so good. The next intensive course start Nov. 21st....and it will be a lot of work again, so I am happy to get a little break from that now...my normal schedule is more than enough work!
I really love the people that I work with. Thank God, otherwise I wouldn´t have bothered staying. To me, the work atmosphere is the most important thing in the workplace. If there is tension, why bother staying and being unhappy? I am happy that everybody is so nice and respectful. :)
In other news, I was sooo looking forward to going to the circus (an Italian Circus, ohh la la) but we found out last night that it costs 16 euros per ticket!! Argh, what???! They do that on purpose, saying "kids get in for free" and then make the accompanying parents pay an insane amount that they know the parents will pay anyways because they want to make their children only happy. Grrrr...here I was looking forward to something different. I was 11 years old the last time I went to a circus. Dammit. Yeah, I know, I am a big kid. But white tigers! C´mon!
It´s getting colder now. We have about 10-15 degrees during the daytime now and 5 degrees at night. Oh well. At least I am escaping the -20 degrees temperatures this winter. :P
Mom, Dad, Daniel, I miss you! Even though I know I will have a great Christmas in Germany with everybody, I wish I could also spend it with you at the same time...oh well, I guess you can´t win everything, eh?
Well, I think that this is enough for now, keep checking this blog because now I will have more time to update it over the weekends and stuff, since Shane is now gone and life is back to normal. Hehehe no more weekend trips for a little while, gotta save more now!
Love you all, your chiquitita from España xoxoxoxooxoxox
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